Brighton boss Hughton positive despite Manchester City defeat

Chris Hughton was not too downhearted with Brighton and Hove Albion’s Premier League debut, despite suffering a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday.

After claiming second place in the Championship last season, the Seagulls welcomed City to the Amex Stadium for the curtain raiser they had all been waiting for.

Brighton may have conceded large swathes of possession to Pep Guardiola’s men, but Albion clung on for over an hour before City finally broke the deadlock.

Sergio Aguero was the man to open the scoring and a Lewis Dunk own goal completed City’s win with 15 minutes to play.

Hughton was proud of the way his players stepped up to the challenge, but acknowledged Albion need to strengthen further to give them a chance of survival.

“It is disappointing but that is the quality Manchester City have got and we know that,” he told BBC Sport.

“We can take a lot of positives from the game. When you are playing Champions League quality teams, you know that they can hurt you. It was always going to be difficult for us to score.

“We have to make sure that come the end of the window, we have a squad that can do well enough in this division. We have to win the games that we can do.”

Midfielder Solly March admitted facing City first up was a daunting task, but the 23-year-old took solace from the fact they will not have to come up against the quality of Guardiola’s squad every week.

“It was a tough game and a tough introduction into the Premier League, but we know we aren’t going to be facing teams like that every week,” he said. “We are looking forward to next week.

“We had them under pressure for five minutes or so, but they are hard to play against.

“It was a special day for all of us and it was a proud moment to make my Premier League debut.”